


Inter-dimensionally Displaced Bride and Hungry Ghoul

by misCOWculation



Category: Death Note & Related Fandoms, Death Note (Anime & Manga), Dragon Ball, Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Android 18 does not consider blowing up the Earth as a remarkable feat, Androids, But Light doesn't, Crack Crossover, Crack Treated Seriously, Deus Ex Machina, Dubious Science, Find Out Next Time on Dragon Ball Z, For Science!, Gen, Ghouls, Insanity, L is a Little Shit (Death Note), L learns to roll with the punches, Light has had it up to HERE with all this bullshit, Light monologues when he thinks people can't see or hear him, Mad Science, Mild Gore, Mind Games, Minor Android 18/Krillin (Dragon Ball), Power Imbalance, Yagami Light is Kira, light yagami goes on a dragon ball hunt?, what will he wish for
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 02:54:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29021550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misCOWculation/pseuds/misCOWculation
Summary: After some inter-dimensional mishap, a soon-to-be-wed Android 18 and a scientifically-minded female ghoul wind up in Death Note. Joining forces to find a way home, they invariably become entangled in the Kira case. But the game of cat and mouse soon becomes a secondary concern for L and Light when they realize how much danger the whole planet is in. No pairings or romance.
Relationships: L & Yagami Light, No Romantic Relationship(s)
Kudos: 6





	1. The Bride

**April 4th, 2004**

The last thing Android 18 had expected a week before she was due to walk the aisle with Krillin was to materialise in the middle of an unfamiliar city. She blinked, blonde hair lashing around her face as the wind blew past skyscrapers. She was floating in the sky, hovering some distance above a tall tower.

Alarmingly, she could sense none of the other z-fighters on the planet, which either meant that they were all dead or that she was no longer on Earth. The latter, probably.

Whatever. She'd been through worse. Being swallowed through Cell's vacuum asshole and feeling every moment of it had been traumatic enough for her to easily accept her new circumstances.

Although she was quite sure that she was still in one piece, she glanced down at her front, finding the faintest mark on her black blouse.

Right.

The first order of business was to find a boutique.

* * *

**Inter-dimensionally Displaced Bride and Hungry Ghoul**

* * *

It turned out that they didn't accept zeni as currency here. 18 sighed as the currency exchange clerk examined her money, folding her arms. "Can't you exchange zeni for yen around here?" The question was ultimately futile to ask, but she asked it anyway. It helped her stay sane.

"Madam," the lady at he counter stressed. "I've never encountered such currency before. Maybe you should try a different booth."

"Never mind. Give it here."

Tentatively, the woman held out the cash, and 18 snatched it from her and shoved it back into her wallet.

Only one option left for her, then.

Virtually broke on an Earth that wasn't hers, 18 put on the cutest dress at the first boutique she came across. The retail assistant gushed and giggled when she came out of the dressing room, under the impression that she was a _paying_ customer. 18 wondered what the girl would think if she knew that she wouldn't be forking anything out.

"I'll take these," 18 decided after trying on seven dresses, thirteen miniskirts, eleven tops, and three pairs of lingerie. Krillin's jaw would drop when he saw her in those. Bulma would surely be working on a way to get her back by now— _If any of those fighting-obsessed pain in the ass freaks have even noticed I'm missing_ —and it would only be a matter of time before she was showering her bald fiancé with invigorating sex and cuddles.

"Do you have a boyfriend?" the retail assistant chattered as she scanned 18's clothes. Another assistant was packing the scanned clothes into a fancy bag.

"Fiancé," amended 18, a small smile on her lips. "We're getting married next Friday."

" _Oh em gee_! That's _sooo_ cute! Your future husband is a lucky man! You're gonna knock him dead when he sees you wearing these." She finished scanning the last blouse. "That will be sixty-nine thousand yen in total!" The assistant punched the numbers into the cash register. "That'll be card, right, ma'am?"

"You also get this free poster for making a purchase over eight-thousand yen," the other girl behind the counter added, unfurling a poster of a blonde model pouting into the camera. It was signed _Misa Amane_.

18 scrutinised the model. She was certainly beautiful, but her kind of cutesy beauty was the kind that faded quickly with age. Frowning, 18 put a finger to her chin. _I could probably make it as a model in this world._ Then she would have some kind of income. _That'd be too much work, though. I'll be gone in a week, anyway._ 18 took the bags, snatched a pair of stylish sunglasses from off the rack, and spun on her heel.

"Sorry, ladies," she called back without much vigour. "But I have places to be."

"Huh?! Hey, w-wait, that's stealing! Come back!"

 _No shit it's stealing,_ 18 thought caustically. She strutted down the streets of Tokyo, bags swinging by her side.

18 hit six more designer boutiques, exiting the last one decked head to toe in designer. Behind her, the employees scrambled to call the police, who had already received several similar alerts.

Blissfully uncaring of her accumulating thefts, 18 stopped before an intersection, flipping a makeup mirror open before applying a fresh coat of lipstick. It wasn't like the police would be able to touch her, anyway—the very idea was laughable, considering she could decimate the entire planet and more. If she worked hard enough, the galaxy would be nothing but dust, but there was no fun in that. It would be a very lonely existence, even for one week.

"There she is!" a male voice called, followed by several footsteps stomping her way.

The light turned green.

18 crossed the intersection, surrounded by everyday citizens.

"Hey, get back here!"

But by the time the crowd had dissipated, 18 was already gone. On top of a skyscraper, she stared down at the confused officers, unable to figure out where she had gone.

18 shook her head.

Humans were so annoying.

* * *

As annoying as they were, humans were also resourceful. The moment news of a disappearing thief broke out within the NPA, the information reached L's ears. At a rather inconvenient time, too, because L was busy reviewing his university opening speech.

Well, not really.

The speech had been generic and copy-and-paste as it could get.

"A disappearing thief?" L echoed, brow creasing slightly at the gothic _W_ on the screen. He was tucked in his room and surrounded by trays and trays of sweets while the rest of the Task Force were working downstairs.

Watari responded by forwarding to him clips from street cameras.

Curiosity piqued, L ran through them, keeping his eyes peeled for the movements of the elusive thief. _Could she be related to Kira...?_ His Light Yagami theory was still as strong as ever, but an accomplice or an acquaintance or even just someone with a similar power was not out of the picture yet.

A blonde woman, it seemed, and certainly not one L would have first pegged for a thief based on her flashy, attention-seeking wardrobe. Then again, he still had Wedy on his contact list, so maybe he shouldn't have been so prejudiced.

The thief halted at an intersection, reapplying her lipstick. Then the light went green, and she found herself surrounded all sides by unwitting citizens. She disappeared out of the frame after reaching the middle of the pedestrian crossing—the view switched to another camera's scope.

L blinked.

 _She disappeared. Just_ — _poof_.

Hastily, he rewound the footage.

The people walking around her were still there—their faces were the same. The transition between the two cameras had been practically seamless. His first thought was that the vanishing thief had been masterfully edited into the first rendition of the footage—but that was highly, highly unlikely. Not even someone of Matt's caliber would've been able to produce such astonishingly realistic work in such short time. Besides—why would they? Unless this was some strange fear-mongering tactic orchestrated by Kira...

 _But assuming Kira is Light Yagami, that is also unlikely._ L thumbed his lip, staring at the screen. _Light Yagami is too careful and too concerned with maintaining his facade at this point._

This woman—this _thief_ —was another case entirely. Kira thought himself a god—he would not concern himself with hedonistic pursuits such as stealing for glamour and vanity.

 _Then..._ L watched the woman disappear over and over again, the people around her too busy with their phones or their next destination to even pay her any attention. _Who are you?_

* * *

 _**A** _ _**/N: If any one of you so much as takes this story seriously, especially you power-scaling cAn hE bEaT gOkU DBZ fanboys, I will come into your house and shoot you nine times in the chest.** _


	2. The Ghoul

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A ghoul finds herself lost in an alternate Tokyo. She has a meal.

**April 4th, 2004**

Everything hurt like _hell_. Mika Miura's eyes cracked open to greet the sun. _Where am I?_ Cautiously, body still wracking with pain, she sat up. Glancing at a puddle of rain by her side, she noted that her eyes were showing their black sclera. Puffing a sigh, she closed them, then opened them again. Her eyes were—they were human. _Good._ She stood, knees almost buckling beneath her weight before she adjusted.

She sniffed the air.

No traces of blood or battle, except on herself.

Which was odd, because the last thing she remembered before passing out had been the One-Eyed King—Ken Kaneki was his name—turning into some _motherfucking monstrosity_ and nearly eviscerating her in the process.

Rinkaku writhing out of her back, she scaled the walls of the alleyway with her tentacles. Gravity was a bitch to her weakened body—she really needed to eat soon—but she managed to find her footing on a rooftop.

Miura frowned, lips pressing into a thin line. _What's this? Why's everything so... clean? Where's the King's, well, everything?_ Kaneki's dragon form had stretched across more than one ward the last she recalled. _The battle can't be over already, can it?_

She inhaled deeply, taking in all the fresh air.

_I need a snack._

* * *

**Inter-dimensionally Displaced Bride and Hungry Ghoul**

* * *

A snack was found in short time. Some drunk in the adjacent alleyway. He'd been sprawled in his own beer cans.

 _Yuck,_ Miura gagged, _Old drunk guys taste so nasty. This is seriously a low point._ She liked to think that she had more dignity than this, but she had given in her instincts like any other ghoul. Some of her old ghoul friends used to say that she had too much pride.

Of course she had _pride_.

 _Unlike the rest of you, I'm not some uneducated hick_. Miura chewed, aggravated, on the drunk's arm. She'd devoured library books alongside human meat during her youth, and had conned her way into high school and university. Like Nishiki Nishio, but better. Or so she liked to tell herself. She and Nishio hadn't been the only ghouls in Kamii University, but the others were irrelevant.

Mika Miura was a scientist first and foremost, and a ghoul second. She wasn't ashamed to admit that she enjoyed the thrill of the hunt, but she spent her time pursuing knowledge rather than prey.

She was a hungry ghoul.

Hungry for _knowledge_.

And, right now, a way back home.

She'd deduced by now that this certainly wasn't her Tokyo. It couldn't be. Everything screamed that it _wasn't_.

 _If I were to guess..._ Miura peered skyward, clutching a bloody leg in one hand. _Ghouls probably don't exist here._ This was a peaceful, ghoul-free world. Truly, she was intrigued to how it would be like, beyond this smelly little alleyway and this disgusting corpse. _Would the world have achieved true peace without our existence? I wonder..._

She thought back to the CCG and the Doves.

Miura smiled. _Probably not. Humans and ghouls... We're more similar than either side would ever like to admit._

Using a nearby faucet to wash the blood off her face and hands, Miura stepped out of the alleyway to explore her new world.

Her first stop—the nearest university.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This is literally just my fever dream. University misadventures of 18, a Tokyo Ghoul OC, and L and Light. All chapters will be short and drabble-ish because it's all the energy I can afford it at the moment.


	3. The Not-Human

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Light meets the ghoul.

**April 5th, 2004**

Miura had spent the night sleeping like a common beggar in front of To-Oh University. She'd woken up to the school custodian sweeping around her, and—after deciding he wasn't worth eating and promptly excusing herself—made her way down to a nearby coffee shop her breakfast brew. Her wallet, which she kept in the back pocket of her jeans, had somehow survived the dimensional transition and she had enough yen to maybe last her a week if she spent frugally.

"Here you go, ma'am," the chipper waitress said with a smile, propping a steaming cup of long black in front of her.

Miura chased the steam away with her breath before tasting it. Not the best she'd ever had, but certainly not the worst either. She returned the waitress' smile. "Thank you. It's lovely."

She took tiny sips of her beverage as she watched the world around her wake up, the streets filling up with more people the higher the sun rose. With her window seat, she could see students streaming in through the front gates, many of them young and fresh-faced. After confirming the date was the fifth with the calendar across the room, Miura hummed thoughtfully. _These brats must be new. Since it's the first day, I'm betting for an opening ceremony._

She sat for half an hour longer before draining the last drop of her coffee and leaving a tip. Then she scurried across the street, blending in with the crowd of young humans. Quickly, Miura made a list of things she needed to do after this—wash away the stench of blood and dirt still clinging to her hair and obtain new clothes. A proper place to sleep was also on her agenda. She wasn't too worried, though—if things came to worse, she would simply massacre everyone within her vicinity and move on to a new region.

Contrary to the typical behaviour of her species, Miura liked to mingle with humans. It was even better knowing that she would be able to snap them in half like twigs. She chorused greetings to the commencing students, pretending that she was one of them.

They got seated in the auditorium.

Her sharp hearing picked up some of the whispers being passed around the hall.

"Did you hear—"

"—yeah, I know—"

"Two geniuses—"

"Isn't that amazing?"

 _Two geniuses?_ Miura's interest swelled.

Then she saw _it_.

Or, rather, _him_.

Miura bounced her leg excitedly, not even bothering to hide her grinning. Was this a normal occurrence in this world? Was that why nobody else was reacting to the horrible eldritch being floating behind the handsome young man on the podium? _Is it a ghoul? A human? Both? Something on the lines of Kanou's experiments? God!_ She absolutely needed to _dissect_ him.

Her kakuhou was already beginning to tingle.

* * *

**Inter-dimensionally Displaced Bride and Hungry Ghoul**

* * *

Light Yagami finished his speech, garnering a hearty round of applause from his audience. In response, he offered them a politely genial smile—which was more difficult to pass off than usual considering Ryuk was poking his shoulder with one pointy finger.

"Heyy, Light. Light-o. Light!"

 _Ignore him._ The last thing Light needed was to seem like some crazy person in front of his peers. He would placate Ryuk with an apple later.

The other top-scoring student— _Is his name seriously 'Hideki Ryuga'? Who's he trying to kid?_ —began his own speech. It was, undoubtedly, one of the blandest, soulless things Light had ever had the displeasure of listening to. It sounded like Ryuga had just scoured the internet the night before and plagiarised off every website he could find. How had this guy even tied with him on the entrance exam?

Ryuga's speech turned out to be half as long as his, and Light took mild pleasure in hearing that the other genius' applause was nowhere near as loud as his had been. They bowed in sync before moving to descend down the stairs.

Then Ryuga began to _whisper_ to him.

"Yagami-kun."

Light didn't answer, though he did tilt his head slightly—enough for Ryuga to realize that he had heard.

"I know that you're the son of Police Chief Soichiro Yagami. Your sense of justice must be great like your father's is."

He didn't deign Ryuga with any visible reaction this time.

"I heard that you've made numerous critical contributions to help solve crimes in the past, and... that you're now interested in the Kira case. I trust in your sense of justice and investigative skills, so if you can promise me not to tell this to anyone else, I am willing to share some critical information on the Kira case."

Light frowned. _What's this? Why is he saying this all of a sudden? Maybe I should just ignore him... But he said that he has critical information on Kira._ And information on Kira meant information on _him_. Without turning around, he uttered under his breath, "I promise. You can tell me."

_"I am L."_

* * *

Ryuk did lazy circles around the air, watching as Light recomposed himself and declared his admiration for L's work. L Lawliet. That was his name. How anticlimactic. He did look forward to what steps Light would take next to get a hold of this precious information, though.

But, for now, things had gotten _seriously_ interesting.

There was a _thing_ in the crowd. Not a human, probably, even though it wore the female skin of one. It didn't have a name or lifespan. Damn, that was kind of creepy, wasn't it? Ryuk had seen monsters before—he hailed from a world of them—but there was nothing more unnerving than a monster pretending to be human.

It— _she_ , Ryuk supposed—was staring right at him with her hungry, hungry eyes. The same eyes Ryuk had seen in the mirror when he was undergoing an apple withdrawal. _She wants to gobble me right up._ Not that she would be able to, but he knew she would try somewhere in the future.

After the ceremony was over, Ryuk followed his pet human outside.

There was another brief exchange between L and Light that Ryuk only lent half an ear to, too concerned with the not-human. L said his farewells before being driven off by his own chauffeur. Ryuk saw and cackled. Light had taken the train here and would be taking the train back.

"Hey! Wait up!"

Light turned, plastering on that smile of his again as the freaky not-human raced up to them. "Yes?"

The not-human cocked an elegant brow at him. "Huh? No, not you—your friend."

Light's mask nearly slipped. "I beg your pardon...?"

And, to Ryuk's great amusement and Light's absolute horror, the not-human pointed straight at Ryuk—at the empty space that she should've been seeing. "I want... to cut you open!"


	4. The Android

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Light thinks he's slick.
> 
> Android 18 and Miura Mika meet.

**April 5th, 2004**

_"I want... to cut you open!"_

No, no, _no_ , this could not be happening. Light opened his mouth, then closed it. The question looped in his head: _Why can she see Ryuk? Did she somehow touch the note? Goddammit! I need to find out her name_ _—I need to write her name!_ _Wait. Calm down. She doesn't know that I can see Ryuk, too. She's just assuming she can because of our proximity. If I play dumb, then maybe_ —

The girl—dark-haired and petite—took Ryuk's large hand and clasped it against her chest, eyes shining. "You're _lovely_."

"Excuse me," Light interrupted. _Lovely?_ 'Lovely' was hardly the first word he would use to describe _Ryuk_ of all things. "Are you talking to me?"

"What? No." She frowned. "I thought we'd already established that you're pathetically uninteresting compared to your cute little smiling friend."

Ouch. 'Pathetically uninteresting'? _No one_ had ever called him that before. _No one_. _Everyone_ always wanted to get to know Light Yagami— _everyone_ wanted to be on his good side. Already fed up, Light's facade cracked ever so slightly. "You're talking to _air_ ," he deadpanned. "Is this some kind of joke?"

"I should be asking _you_ that," she retorted. "Who are you again?"

An opening. Perfect. "Light Yagami. I delivered one of the opening ceremony speeches. What's _your_ name?"

"Oh, right. I'm Mika Miura."

_I have you now._

Stifling a smirk, Light handed her a piece of the Death Note—one he kept tucked in the underside of his tie—and a pen. "You said you wanted to get to know my friend, right?" It didn't matter now if she knew that he could see Ryuk—he had her name and her face. It was over. _I doubt this airhead would be faking it like Misora. She doesn't even seem to know Ryuk is a god of death._ "Can you write your name and number down for me, please?"

Miura took the items from him, none the wiser of her impending doom. "Sure. I don't have a phone, but I can give you my name. You'll be able to find me hanging around the campus."

Her parents must have greatly sheltered her if she didn't own a phone. But never mind. She was as good as dead now.

She finished writing her name, giving the paper and pen back to him.

Not even bothering to hide it, Light added in the conditions of her death on the paper, stating that she would leave campus at seven in the evening, drink herself silly, and be involved in a fatal mugging in a shady neighborhood a few kilometres from here. _Unfortunate college girl meets her doom while walking drunk late at night_ , the papers would say.

Pleasantly, Light smiled at her. "I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

But Miura's attention was back on Ryuk. "What's _your_ name?" she asked, sweetly, holding his hand like a girlish lover. Light nearly gagged.

Ryuk chuckled. "You really wanna know?"

"Of course! You already know mine—there's no way you didn't hear. What's your opinion on consent to bodily modification, by the way? Personally, I don't really care for it."

"Ryuk," Light cleared his throat, still not used to being so blatantly snubbed, "We're going."

"Ryuk!" exclaimed Miura. "That's an awesome name. Ryuk. Ryuk, Ryuk, Ryuk. I could say it all day."

 _Please don't tell me you're in love with my shinigami._ They would make the world's creepiest couple and he really didn't need to see that right after Ryuga announced himself to be L. Light sighed, feeling his blood pressure going up. "Miura-san, we'll be coming to school tomorrow. Ryuk's not exactly hard to spot, so you'll see him then."

"Alright, alright." At least Miura knew when to back off. "I'll see you tomorrow, then, Ryukkun. And, ah, Yagami."

 _No, you won't be._ "See you tomorrow."

* * *

**Inter-dimensionally Displaced Bride and Hungry Ghoul**

* * *

The designer clothes filled the the void in her heart for a shorter while than she'd expected. Android 18 sighed through her nose as she flopped on her luxury hotel bed. None of the staff knew she was here—she had come in through the one of the top floor window. All the riches in the world meant nothing if she didn't have her soon-to-be husband to share it with.

 _I wonder what Krillin is doing now,_ she thought, absently going through her belongings. She'd brought with her from her world a small box of capsules. Bulma had given them out last Christmas to all the families in their friend circle and 18 had dumped it into her purse and forgotten about it until now.

There was a manual denoting which held what attached to the bottom of the lid, too, one she hadn't read yet.

One of them was probably a house, though.

Deciding to go through it later, 18 sucked all of her designer clothes, shoes, and sunglasses into an empty capsule. Then she took a shower, got dressed, and jumped out the window. She flew through the city, making note to brush her hair immediately after landing.

18 was vaguely aware that she was a wanted criminal. She supposed it spiced things up around here, but not by much since none of them would be able to actually arrest her. Unless she let them. But that wasn't exactly exciting by any stretch.

She landed in an empty clearing, opening her stolen phone. According to the GPS, she was at To-Oh University. A place as good as any, because she couldn't wait around anymore. If she wanted progress, she would have to make her own moves.

Scientists could be found at universities, right? 18 didn't remember much of her life before Dr. Gero—her life as the homeless orphan _Lazuli_ —but her upbringing hadn't allowed her to receive much of an education. Gero had programmed into her information on all sorts of fighting techniques but none useful for academic pursuits. It was just like the good doctor to think that academia would be wasted on his weapons of destruction.

Not for the first time, she wished 17 were here with her. Then she'd have some way to take out her frustration—there wasn't anything else here that could be punched through a mountain and survive without a scratch.

18 marched up to the first person she encountered—a custodian by the looks of his dowdy dress. "Hey, you. There are science buildings or whatever here, right?"

The janitor smiled at her through his bushy mustache. "Just keep going straight from here and turn left around that corner. You won't miss it."

"Thanks."

The custodian was right—the building was impossible to miss, because there was an exhibition going on. 18 explored the grounds, curiosity getting the better of her as she observed the inventions of students and teachers alike. The technology here was so... _dated_. Was that guy over there advertising a potential cure for cancer? Back in her world, cancer had _long_ been cured. How did people live like this? 18 felt like she had traveled hundreds of years back to the past.

Somebody bumped into her. "Oops, sorry."

18 whipped around. "It's fine." _Hm? Is she human? Her power level's higher than any other human I've encountered so far._ She frowned, watching the black-haired girl worm her way through the science-minded crowd. No, 18 decided, she couldn't let her go. She was an anomaly in this world, and anomalies could lead to answers. "Hey! Wait up!"

The girl turned. "Eh? Is this about just then? Sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going—"

" _What_ are you?" 18 demanded, grabbing her wrist. "You're not human, are you?" Not only was her power level disproportionately high compared to an average human's, but there was something _off_ about her ki, too.

She grinned, perking up at the accusation. "Neither are you, right? Why don't we go grab lunch?"


	5. The Short-Lived Battle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was more of a curbstomp than a struggle of any sorts.

**April 5th, 2004**

"So then he sucked you up his ass?" Miura echoed, hiding her snicker behind a tall glass of iced long black.

18 was not amused. "When you say it like that..."

"Oh, 18! You're a riot."

 _There's something seriously screwed in her brain,_ 18 thought, exasperated, keeping her icy blue eyes on her as she drank her cappuccino. Then again, she grudgingly admitted that it might have sounded funny in retrospect, being consumed alive through what had essentially been Cell's anal passage.

They talked for a bit more, neither of them shy in sharing secrets now that they were both in a new world free of any dangers—but only when appropriate topics of conversation came up. For now, they simply discussed their statuses as stranded strangers.

"So you're stuck here, too," Miura said, sighing emphatically. "Well, can't be helped, I guess. At least you have someone you can count on back home. What was her name again? Bloomers?"

18 snorted. "Bulma."

"Right. Bloomers. Like the underwear."

The waitress brought a slice of cake, setting it down in front of Miura even though 18 had been the one who had ordered it. 18 assumed that the waitress didn't think she looked very much like a cake person when Miura—with her more childish features—was sitting right across from her in the dining booth.

Miura pushed the cake to her.

"Not a cake fan?" 18 ventured.

"Well, can't say I'm not a fan, considering I've never tried it."

"Seriously?" 18's brows rose. The waitress had been considerate enough to give them two forks, as well. She held one out to Miura. "Try some. I'm not a sweets person myself, but even I won't pass on a good cake."

But Miura shook her head, laughing airily. "Trust me, it won't be a good idea. Unless you have positive feelings toward me vomiting my guts up on your shiny shoes."

18 withdrew the fork from her, dragging the plate of cake closer. "Never mind." Miura must have been allergic, or something along those lines.

"You know," Miura started after a while, swirling the ice at the bottom of her tall glass. "I've never really had the privilege of relying on anyone before. So I have my own plans to get home. If you want... we could work together. The tech here is pretty old—"

"Older than the dinosaurs."

"—so I could use all the help I could get. What are you again? Er, a robot?"

"Android," 18 supplied, helpfully. "Or artificial human or whatever. Ugh. It's a whole mess I'd rather not get into. But putting our heads together is a good idea. With your brains and my programming... We could probably get further than we would working by ourselves."

Miura grinned. "Exactly what I was thinking!"

Outside, the sun was beginning to set. They had sat here for many hours now, refilling their coffees.

The cafe was to close at seven, and they were asked to leave ten minutes before closing. Shrugging her bag on her shoulder—it held all of her important supplies, like her stolen wallets and storage capsules—18 followed Miura outside, briefly relishing in the cool evening breeze.

"What now?" Miura asked no one in particular, craning her neck to try and spot some stars in the sky. But in the big city, it was an impossible feat.

"You could start by telling me what you are," suggested 18, crossing her arms. "I already told you what _I_ am, so it's only fair."

"True... But to be honest, I'm feeling a little hungry, so why don't I just show you? If you're really as strong as you imply, it shouldn't be a problem."

18 narrowed her eyes. What—was Miura planning to jump her in an alleyway or something? The girl wasn't even remotely threatening to 18—she was but an _ant_. So, seeing nothing to lose here except for a potential friend, she nodded. "Fine. Lead the way."

Miura did. She was a fast walker, but 18 had no trouble keeping up. They walked through the city, eventually ending up in a shady neighborhood. 18 glanced down at her stolen designer watch. It was nearly seven o'clock—if she wanted to complete her skincare routine tonight, she would have to find a hotel soon. Or a place to spawn the house that was inevitably hiding in one of Bulma's gift capsules.

A low moan sounded.

The two women turned their heads to the left, seeing a staggering drunk of a man limping toward them. In his hand was a pathetically flimsy pocket knife.

"Gimme all yer money," he slurred, stumbling forward.

Miura did nothing.

For a moment, 18 thought the younger woman had frozen up in fear.

"You wanted to see what I am, right?" Miura suddenly said, and 18 could feel something dark flood the area.

"Yeah. But I'd like to be freshly showered by eight, if you don't mind. So hurry up."

"Hah! So impatient, 18."

Something happened, then. If she were human, she might have missed it. But she wasn't, and 18 saw it all, muted shock on her face. Tentacles with spiked structures decorating the surface emerged from the small of Miura's back.

The mugger shrieked, dropping his knife and falling on his ass. He began to babble, trying to dismiss the nightmarish sight as a drunken hallucination. Like all humans tended to do when they knew they were about to die, he pleaded to god—every god he could name, including one called _Kira_ of all things. 18 didn't think too much of it, fixated on the sight of Miura advancing on the man with her hellish appendages. No god would save him now.

"Sorry." Miura didn't sound sorry at all, eyes bleeding black. "I'm sure you're a nice guy. You were just here at the wrong time."

"He was trying to mug us," 18 pointed out.

"You digress." Without much inflection to her tone, Miura ripped the man to shreds with her tentacles. Blood sprayed, and 18 tilted her head to the side to avoid a flying chunk of brain.

"What are you doing?" 18 inquired when Miura crouched beside the decimated corpse.

"I told you." 18 recoiled in disgust as Miura shoveled flesh into her mouth. "I'm hungry. Which is weird, because I normally only eat once a month."

"Fuck, that's disgusting."

"How mean of you, 18. I thought we were in this together."

18 scrunched up her nose. "You're eating a _person_."

"Because I have to survive," retorted Miura. "You asked what I am, and this is the answer. I'm a ghoul. Human flesh and coffee are the only two things that I can consume."

 _A ghoul..._ 18 mulled her words over in her head. Finally, she said, "Fine. I get it. Sorry for being a bitch about your dietary requirements."

"Oh, that's quite alright. You're reacting really well for a non-ghoul. I'm quite impressed, frankly."

18 eyed the body. "It's not really anything I haven't seen before." Before she'd been absorbed by Cell, the bug-man had eaten his way through several hundreds of towns and cities of people. Granted, Cell hadn't nearly been so crass about his feasting, but the idea was the same.

Miura ate about seventy-five percent of the drunk before standing up and wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "Can I try kill you now? I did kinda want to test how strong you are."

18 rolled her shoulders in a shrug. "Sure, knock yourself out. Just let me put down my bag."

As soon as the bag had been set down, Miura's kagune launched forward, sharp and deadly. 18 side-stepped it, grabbing the tentacle and swinging Miura into the adjacent building without even breaking a sweat. Miura screeched, her body making a deep crater against the brick.

"Fucking hell!" she swore.

"Was that too much?"

"I felt all the bones in my legs break!"

"Sorry. Thought you would've been stronger than this." Even Krillin, who was fully human, would've been able to take that without so much as breaking a bone.

"Ugh, I yield. Shit, that was humiliating. Mind dragging me home?"

"Where do you live?"

"Nowhere, really."

There was still the house in the capsule. "Fine, I'll bring you to my place." Now was a better time than any to set up a semi-permanent base in this strange world. Then 18 paused, remembering something. "Or should I bring you to a hospital?"

"No, no. I'll be fine." Miura chuckled, mirthless. "It should be mostly healed by the time the sun rises." 18 picked her up bridal style. "Argh! Easy on the pelvis, 18, I'm pretty sure that's fractured, too!"

"Sorry," 18 said again, the meaning in her apologies beginning to lose some steam. Without any warning for the wounded ghoul in her arms, 18 shot into the sky, making sure to fly at a speed that wouldn't have every other bone in Miura's body breaking as well.

Miura shrieked. "You can _fly_?!"

18 stared down at her. " _You_ can't?"

"No! No, I cannot! You're breaking literally every law of physics!"

"Hm."

What else was new?

18 had never really cared about the law anyway.

* * *

**Inter-dimensionally Displaced Bride and Hungry Ghoul**

* * *

**April 6th, 2004**

Things in Tokyo had been strange lately, but the Yagami household maintained its levels of normalcy. Light got up, got dressed, had breakfast with his family, and went to school. His mother planned out her errands for the day, Sayu talked about how nervous she was for her first year of high school, and his father went to work.

With the Kira Task Force.

With L.

Damn that L. Ryuga. Whatever. Light didn't care what he went by—at the end of the day, the detective was still trying to get him executed.

Light passed by a stand selling newspapers. Deciding to do the seller a great deal of kindness, he bought a copy for two-hundred and fifty yen and read it on the train to To-Oh.

Things in Tokyo had been strange lately.

Disappearing femme fatales getting away with millions of dollars of yen worth of merchandise and mutilated bodies appearing in the alleys of the city. A building which looked like it had been smashed into by a wrecking ball.

 _Honestly,_ thought Light, disgusted. _This world has always been rotten, and this just further proves my point._ It hardened his resolve as Kira even more—no, he would not back down. He couldn't, even in the face of an adversary like L. If he did, he would be betraying his principles and all the good people who were depending on him.

What Light needed to do right now, while he still had some semblance of peace, was to mentally go through all the problems he had to tackle. L was the most prominent one of all, followed by Miura. _Miura. I can check her off my list_. No doubt the notebook had worked its magic—Miura would be dead by now. He wouldn't have to worry about seeing her at school and making doe eyes at Ryuk, thank god. It didn't matter that Miura had been able to see Ryuk while she'd been alive—no human escaped the Death Note.

It was in the very first rule of the book.

_The human whose name is written in this note shall die._

Nice and simple, unlike everything else going on in his life right now.

When he arrived at school in time for his first class, he was pleased that he did not encounter Miura. _Dead,_ he told himself. _Of course she's dead._ Foolishly, perhaps, Light had considered the possibility of her living—of pulling the wool over his eyes like Naomi Misora had done five minutes before he sentenced her to death. For once, he was glad that he was wrong.

Mika Miura was dead.

_Now I just have L to deal with._

And that brainless Misa and her annoying shinigami, he supposed, but L was still the bigger fish that needed to be fried.

Light Yagami would send them all to hell.


	6. The Staring Contest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> L and 18 have a staring contest.

**April 6th, 2004**

If L was going to work on the case that would define the entirety of his career, he would have fun while he was at it. Or, at the very least, enjoy himself. And, today, that came at the expense of Light Yagami's patience.

The first class of the day was Introduction to Criminology.

And L—

"Could Yagami-kun please lend me a pen?" he asked his seat neighbor politely, even though he had no intention of actually taking notes in a class he was more than qualified to teach.

Light eyed him for a moment, and L knew that _he_ knew that his days of peace were over. "Here."

"Thank you, Yagami-kun."

L would have pushed his luck further—if he dropped dead from a heart attack, at least he would definitely know who was responsible—but he had been feeling someone's gaze boring holes into the back of his head ever since class started.

He turned his head abruptly, hoping to startle them with his too-wide eyes and his ashen skin.

The perpetrator was a woman, and she held his gaze rather impressively. The staring continued, with neither of them saying a word. By now, Light had noticed their silent altercation, and was doing his best to pretend he wasn't invested in it.

Then the woman tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear, though her eyes never left L's.

"What?" the woman finally said, decidedly annoyed. "You've never seen someone with two x chromosomes before?"

Did she think he was some sort of shut-in? Actually, that conclusion wasn't so far off. L thumbed his lip. "You have quite a talent. I've never met anyone able to outlast me in a staring contest before."

She made a face. "Yeah, don't worry your creepy little head about it."

Making a great show of it, L patted his head as if he had been offended by her words.

_What a strange woman._

_I would not think..._

_The vanishing thief would find me before I found her._

* * *

**Inter-dimensionally Displaced Bride and Hungry Ghoul**

* * *

There was a guy on campus grounds with a rather malicious ki. 18 had first noticed him when she stepped out of the house she now shared with Miura—she had popped it out of its capsule in a secluded area behind the university—to get groceries. Because while the house had been nice, its pantries had been empty of all food. She had toned down her dress today—had even put on a hat so she would not be recognized. Not that she would normally care, but it would be troublesome now that she was nursing a foolish ghoul back to health. Plus, being on the run got _tiring_ at times.

 _What's his deal?_ 18 wondered as he walked past her. Was he a killer, perhaps? Sometimes, human killers were evil enough to exude such a poisonous energy. It was unusual, to say the least, so she shoved grocery shopping aside and did the only logical thing.

Follow him to class.

_Although..._

In her peripheral, she could see another person following the boy.

_It looks like I'm not the only one with that idea._

The other person—a man, in his early twenties, maybe—walked with the worst hunch 18 had ever seen. His unruly black hair flopped over his eyes, which were ringed with dark circles. He looked badly like he needed to be introduced to the concept of sleep.

18 slowed her pace down. It didn't matter if she lost sight of the auburn-haired boy—what, with the stench of evil all over him. He was like a walking beacon for anyone able to sense ki.

The two men sat down next to each other in a lecture hall—or, rather, the weird spider-like guy forced his presence on the evil one. 18 took a seat in the row behind them, glaring at anyone who glanced her way. It worked—no one sat next to her, and she was free to observe the two sitting in front of her.

Halfway through the lesson, 18 was going to leave because of how utterly mind-numbing it was. But before she could get up, the creeper whipped around to stare at her.

18 stared back.

He wasn't blinking.

Why wasn't he blinking?

Just for trying to freak her out, 18 chose not to blink either.

He lost.

At last, 18 drawled, "What? You've never seen someone with two x chromosomes before?"

"You have quite a talent," he replied, voice deeper than she would've expected. "I've never met anyone able to outlast me in a staring contest before."

 _Well, yeah, that's probably because you're a human and I have more cybernetic enhancements than I can count._ "Yeah, don't worry your creepy little head about it." Her blue gaze shifted to the back of the evil one's head.

"Are you acquainted with Yagami-kun?" the creepy one asked abruptly.

"No," 18 said shortly. "I'm not, you..."

"Ryuuga Hideki."

There was no way he didn't know she had been about to call him a creep.

"I don't know him," 18 said again. "But you might want to look into your friend's body count. I haven't felt something that evil since the Cell Games." With that, she tossed her hair back and started reading the board, perfectly aware that Ryuuga and his friend were now openly ogling her.


End file.
